KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a full virtualization solution for Linux on AMD64 and Intel 64 systems. qemu-kvm is the user-space component for running virtual machines using KVM.

It was found that the virtio-blk driver in qemu-kvm did not properly validate read and write requests from guests. A privileged guest user could use this flaw to crash the guest or, possibly, execute arbitrary code on the host. (CVE-2011-1750)

It was found that the PIIX4 Power Management emulation layer in qemu-kvm did not properly check for hot plug eligibility during device removals. A privileged guest user could use this flaw to crash the guest or, possibly, execute arbitrary code on the host.
(CVE-2011-1751)

This update also fixes several bugs and adds various enhancements.

All users of qemu-kvm should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to resolve these issues, and fix the bugs and add the enhancements.

After installing this update, shut down all running virtual machines.
Once all virtual machines have shut down, start them again for this update to take effect.

The remote Oracle Linux 6 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ELSA-2011-0534 advisory.

    - Resolves: bz#698910       (CVE-2011-1750 virtio-blk: heap buffer overflow caused by unaligned requests [rhel-6.1])
    - Resolves: bz#699789       (CVE-2011-1751 acpi_piix4: missing hotplug check during device removal [rhel-6.1])
    - kvm-Fix-CVE-2011-0011-qemu-kvm-Setting-VNC-password-to-e.patch [bz#667976]
    - Resolves: bz#667976       (CVE-2011-0011 qemu-kvm: Setting VNC password to empty string silently disables all authentication     [rhel-6.1])

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Oracle Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Nelson Elhage discovered that incorrect memory handling during the removal of ISA devices in KVM, a solution for full virtualization on x86 hardware, could lead to denial of service or the execution of arbitrary code.

The remote host is affected by the vulnerability described in GLSA-201210-04 (qemu-kvm: Multiple vulnerabilities)

    Multiple vulnerabilities have been discovered in qemu-kvm. Please review       the CVE identifiers referenced below for details.
  Impact :

    These vulnerabilities allow a remote attacker to cause a Denial of       Service condition on the host server or qemu process, might allow for       arbitrary code execution or a symlink attack when qemu-kvm is in snapshot       mode.
  Workaround :

    There is no known workaround at this time.

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 6 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the RHSA-2011:0534 advisory.

    KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a full virtualization solution for     Linux on AMD64 and Intel 64 systems. qemu-kvm is the user-space component     for running virtual machines using KVM.

    It was found that the virtio-blk driver in qemu-kvm did not properly     validate read and write requests from guests. A privileged guest user could     use this flaw to crash the guest or, possibly, execute arbitrary code on     the host. (CVE-2011-1750)

    It was found that the PIIX4 Power Management emulation layer in qemu-kvm     did not properly check for hot plug eligibility during device removals. A     privileged guest user could use this flaw to crash the guest or, possibly,     execute arbitrary code on the host. (CVE-2011-1751)

    Red Hat would like to thank Nelson Elhage for reporting CVE-2011-1751.

    This update also fixes several bugs and adds various enhancements.
    Documentation for these bug fixes and enhancements will be available     shortly from the Technical Notes document, linked to in the References     section.

    All users of qemu-kvm should upgrade to these updated packages, which     contain backported patches to resolve these issues, and fix the bugs and     add the enhancements noted in the Technical Notes. After installing this     update, shut down all running virtual machines. Once all virtual machines     have shut down, start them again for this update to take effect.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

By causing a hot-unplug of the pci-isa bridge from within guests the qemu process could access already freed memory. A privileged user inside the guest could exploit that to crash the guest instance or potentially execute arbitrary code on the host (CVE-2011-1751).

The virtio-blk driver did not properly validate read and write request. A privileged user inside the guest could exploit that to cause a heap corruption and crash the guest instance or potentially execute arbitrary code on the host (CVE-2011-1750).

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

  - The pciej_write function in hw/acpi_piix4.c in the PIIX4 Power Management emulation in qemu-kvm does not     check if a device is hotpluggable before unplugging the PCI-ISA bridge, which allows privileged guest     users to cause a denial of service (guest crash) and possibly execute arbitrary code by sending a crafted     value to the 0xae08 (PCI_EJ_BASE) I/O port, which leads to a use-after-free related to active qemu     timers. (CVE-2011-1751)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

The following bugs have been fixed :

  - By causing a hot-unplug of the pci-isa bridge from     within guests the qemu process could access already     freed memory. A privileged user inside the guest could     exploit that to crash the guest instance or potentially     execute arbitrary code on the host. (CVE-2011-1751)

  - The virtio-blk driver did not properly validate read and     write request. A privileged user inside the guest could     exploit that to cause a heap corruption and crash the     guest instance or potentially execute arbitrary code on     the host. (CVE-2011-1750)

It was discovered that QEMU did not properly perform validation of I/O operations from the guest which could lead to heap corruption. An attacker could exploit this to cause a denial of service of the guest or possibly execute code with the privileges of the user invoking the program. (CVE-2011-1750)

Nelson Elhage discoverd that QEMU did not properly handle memory when removing ISA devices. An attacker could exploit this to cause a denial of service of the guest or possibly execute code with the privileges of the user invoking the program. (CVE-2011-1751)

When using QEMU with libvirt or virtualization management software based on libvirt such as Eucalyptus and OpenStack, QEMU guests are individually isolated by an AppArmor profile by default in Ubuntu.

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

The remote MiracleLinux 4 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the AXSA:2011-600:02 advisory.

    KVM (for Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware.
    Using KVM, one can run multiple virtual machines running unmodified Linux or Windows images. Each virtual     machine has private virtualized hardware: a network card, disk, graphics adapter, etc.
    Security issues fixed with this release:
    CVE-2011-1750     CVE-2011-1751     CVE-2011-2212     CVE-2011-2512     No description available at the time of writing, please use the CVE links below.
    Fixed bugs:
     - If a guest system had more than 4 GB of memory, the host kernel's vhost module might not have a     complete view of the guest system's memory. This could result in a hot plugged vhost-net network device     not working after restarting the guest. This has been fixed.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the MiracleLinux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Published	Updated	Severity
61047	Scientific Linux Security Update : qemu-kvm on SL6.x x86_64	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	8/1/2012	1/14/2021	high
181056	Oracle Linux 6 : qemu-kvm (ELSA-2011-0534)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	9/7/2023	10/22/2024	critical
55029	Debian DSA-2241-1 : qemu-kvm - implementation error	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	6/10/2011	1/4/2021	high
62634	GLSA-201210-04 : qemu-kvm: Multiple vulnerabilities	Nessus	Gentoo Local Security Checks	10/19/2012	1/6/2021	high
63980	RHEL 6 : qemu-kvm (RHSA-2011:0534)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	1/24/2013	4/14/2025	critical
75566	openSUSE Security Update : kvm (openSUSE-SU-2011:0510-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	6/13/2014	1/14/2021	high
75887	openSUSE Security Update : kvm (openSUSE-SU-2011:0510-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	6/13/2014	1/14/2021	high
217389	Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2011-1751	Nessus	Misc.	3/3/2025	1/28/2026	high
54640	SuSE 11.1 Security Update : kvm (SAT Patch Number 4574)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	5/25/2011	1/19/2021	high
55108	Ubuntu 10.04 LTS / 10.10 / 11.04 : qemu-kvm vulnerabilities (USN-1145-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	6/13/2011	9/19/2019	high
291491	MiracleLinux 4 : qemu-kvm-0.12.1.2-2.160.AXS4.8 (AXSA:2011-600:02)	Nessus	Miracle Linux Local Security Checks	1/19/2026	1/19/2026	critical

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